Chapter 5

Rey was already down in a compartment working on something when Allana came in.

''What's wrong with the ship now?''

Rey was so startled she banged her head on a pipe.

''Oh I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to startle you.''

''It's fine,'' Rey said rubbing her head. ''I should have been paying more attention. I'm working on the hyper drive. What you did temporarily fixed it, and then I did something to it and I thought I fixed the problem but…''

''That hyper drive is awful. It never worked when I was a kid. What exactly is wrong?''

''I don't know. There was a warning light going off in the cockpit, but I don't see anything wrong with it so far.''

''Did you run a diagnostic or have BB-8 talk to it?''

''I tried. The diagnostic wouldn't go through, and there must be something wrong with the communications because it wasn't responding to BB-8.''

''Don't get me wrong, I love this ship, but sometimes I would give anything for one with less problems.''

''That thought has definitely gone through my head. Do you have any idea what's wrong?''

''I'll have to take a look. How about you go work on the communicator, and I'll see what's wrong with the hyper drive.''

''Deal,'' Rey said as she climbed out of the compartment as Allana climbed in. They both set to work. The pair worked in silence until Allana poked her head out. ''Okay I've got good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first.?''

''Good news.''

''The good news is that I can probably keep it running until we get to the base.''

''And the bad news is?''

''We need a new hyper drive. It's completely fried. Some idiot rewired the whole thing and was feeding way to much power into it. The circuits are either completely fried or getting close. No one caught it because you have to remove a few panels and scrape off a few layers of oil. There's no saving it. It's a miracle that it's taken us this far.''

Rey groaned as she banged her head against the wall. ''My sentiments exactly,'' Allana said as she walked over to the toolbox and pulled it closer. ''Can you help me with this?''

''Sure,'' Rey said coming over. ''What are you doing to fix it?''

''Reconnect a few wires, mess with the circuits a bit, try to clean up some of the corrosion, and hope it doesn't fall apart.''

''Sounds good. Have you worked on this ship a lot?''

''I spent as much time as I could here. This was the one place I could escape my mother and all the stress. I spent all of my free time on this ship when my dad was home.''

''Han wasn't around much?''

''Yeah. He worked for the New Republic. He was one of their best, so they sent him on missions a lot.''

''Well at least your mom and brother were around.''

Allana let out a chuckle. ''I think they around even less than my dad. Ben was off training with Luke on Yavin 4, and my mom worked so much, I saw her less than my dad sometimes. She would come home when I was asleep and left before I woke up.''

''Wow! Who took care of you then?''

''Nannies and occasionally C-3PO. Oh and starting when I was about five, my aunt would come and stay with me if my dad was going to be gone longer than a month.''

''I guess you weren't very close to your parents then.''

''That's partially true. Pass the hydro spanner.''

''What do you mean?''

''Well, I didn't really mind that my dad was gone. I mean, he didn't really have a choice, and he always called me on my birthday and other special days. Whenever he was home, he spent as much time as he could with me. My mom on the other hand…''

''Not the same?''

''Not even close. I lived in the same house as her for fourteen years, but it sometimes felt like she never came home. She worked a lot, and my dad always said that she had been like that since the day he met her. There were years where I spent my birthday alone, and I didn't even speak to her. What bothered me the most was that she could have worked less. Her boss told me as much.''

''What about when your brother came home? He did come home right?''

''Yeah, he came home for holidays and a few weeks here and there. When he was home, she dropped everything. She was home when I left for school and home for dinner every night. I always wondered why she could always make time when he came to town, but when I had something going on, it was a miracle if she could get off work to at least come to part it.''

''Can I ask you something personal?''

Allana turned to face her. ''Like everything else hasn't been personal?''

When she saw Rey's panicked face she laughed. ''You haven't pried Rey. What did you want to ask me?''

''Kylo Ren looked into my mind and saw that I thought of Han as the father I never had. He said that he would have disappointed me. Why would he say that? I know that he wasn't around much, but that doesn't seen to bother you.''

Allana stopped what she was doing and leaned back on her heels. ''My brother and my mom had a very special bond. I've always assumed that was because they were both force sensitive. They can communicate with each other in a way that my dad and I can't. My dad and I had a relationship like theirs. We were very close because we both weren't force sensitive. He understood me better than my mom did.''

''So why does Kylo Ren hate Han?''

''I'm not there yet. I thought Jedi were supposed to me patient.''

''You sound like Luke.''

''I guess all those years of being around him finally rubbed off on me. Anyway, in my eyes, my dad could do no wrong, and in my brother's eyes, my mom could do no wrong. He couldn't forgive our dad for not being home, just like I couldn't forgive our mom. My mom was the person I blamed for everything, and my dad was the person my brother blamed for everything. I know my mom loved me, but I just wanted her to be there. Eventually I got my wish.''

''What do you mean?''

''When Ben turned to the dark side, everything changed. My uncle went into hiding, and my aunt, the one person besides my dad who really understood me, was dead. My dad stopped going on missions, and my mom cut back on her hours. Everything was fine for awhile. Then they started fighting. They both blamed themselves for what happened and didn't really know how to cope. They fought about little things and big things. The First Order had been around for a while, but wasn't a big threat. As it got bigger, my mom joined the Resistance, and my dad was not happy. He thought she was going to die.''

''He loved her.''

''Yeah,'' Allana said smiling,'' He really did.''

She stared at the tool in her hand for a long moment. Rey put a hand on her arm. ''You don't have to continue if you don't want to.''

''It's fine. For a while I thought things were going to be okay. They had stopped fighting, at least in front of me. Then right after my thirteenth birthday, things started falling apart.''

''What happened?''

''They started fighting again, and my dad started going on missions, each one longer than the last. Eventually the day before my fourteenth birthday, they finally exploded. They had their worst fight ever, but I thought everything was going to be okay because they immediately apologized to each other. I went to bed thinking everything was all right. I woke up the next morning to find a note and a gift sitting on the kitchen counter.''

''Han had left, hadn't he?''

''Yeah. He was gone. I barley had time to process what had happened when my mom came barreling in the room and demanded that I pack. Within hours, our entire home was packed up, and we were at the Resistance Base. While we lived there, my relationship with my mom worsened. We fought all the time. I blamed her for dad leaving, and she just didn't understand how hard everything had been on me. When I was sixteen, I had finally had enough. I enlisted, even though she had told me that there was no way in hell she was ever going to let me join.''

''I bet she was mad.''

''Mad doesn't even begin to describe it. That year, I did everything she didn't want me to do, and it felt so good. I had finally disobeyed her. Looking back there were probably better ways to handle my anger.''

''Why did you leave?''

Allana turned back to the hyper drive. ''We need to get back to work.''

Rey silently accepted this boundary and resisted the urge to look into her mind. The two worked until they were both covered in grease and oil. Rey helped Allana out of the compartment, and they covered it.

''Did you ever find out what was wrong with the communicator,'' asked Allana as she wiped her hand off on a rag.

''Not really.''

''Can we send messages off the ship?''

''No, but we can receive them.''

''Weird. Did you try turning it off and turning it back on,'' asked Allana, walking over to the communications board.

''It can't be that simple,'' Rey said.

Allana reached down, flipped the kill switch, unplugged a few wires, and waited. After a few moments she plugged the wires back in, checked to make sure all of the other switches were flipped the right way, and finally turned it back on.

''Well,'' asked Rey, ''did it work?''

She didn't respond and instead typed something in and pressed a few buttons. She leaned back and smiled.

''It's working.''

''How?''

''It's an old ship. Sometimes all it takes to fix something is unplugging something and plugging it back in or banging on it really hard.''

Just then the boys came in, followed closely by BB-8.

''We come baring food,'' Poe and Finn said in unison.

They were carrying a tray of sandwiches, and Chewbacca was carrying a pitcher of blue milk and some glasses.

''Yum,'' said Allana reaching for a sandwich with Rey not far behind.

They passed out the sandwiches and the blue milk and sat down to eat. They talked about the Resistance, the ship, and anything else that came to mind while trying to avoid bringing up Leia, Han, or Kylo Ren. When they had finished eating and cleaned up, Poe asked,'' what do you guys want to do? I don't think there are things that need to be fixed, and it's way to early to sleep.''

''What about cards,'' said Allana, digging through the cabinets, looking for a deck.

''What game,'' asked Finn.

''Sabacc. I can teach you if you don't know how.''

Rey looked at her in disbelief, ''you can play Sabacc?''

''She was the best on the base,'' Poe said,'' everyone must have lost hundreds of credits to her.''

Allana pulled out a deck of cards. ''I'm not that good. Don't worry; I'll go easy on you newbies. Chewie are you playing?''

Of course cub. Deal me in.

Three hours and twenty rounds later, Rey, Finn, and Poe were the only ones playing. Chewie had gone to bed, and Allana had stopped playing two rounds ago, claiming she just wanted to watch and promptly fell asleep on Poe's shoulder. When Rey yawned for the second time in ten minutes, they called it quits. Finn gathered up the cards, and Rey carried their empty glasses to the kitchen. Poe gently nudged Allana's shoulder until she woke up.

''Hey,'' he said softly, ''How about you go to sleep in your bed?''

''Okay,'' she mumbled sleepily. ''Carry me.''

He gently picked her up and carried her bridal style to the captain's cabin. After he had tucked her into bed, he turned to leave.

''Poe?''

He stopped and turned towards the bed. ''Yes?''

''I'm sorry,'' Allana said sleepily, ''I'm sorry for everything.''

He gently pulled a piece of hair away from her face and said, ''You have nothing to be sorry for.''

He left the cabin, and a peaceful silence fell over the ship as they all slept.

AN: I really hoped you guys enjoyed this chapter! If anyone has any ideas of what should happen in this story please message me. I know how I want this story to end, but I would love to hear what you guys want to happen. As always, please review! Disclaimer- I don't own a thing.